Jonathan's Jungle News from June and July 2007

28th July 2007  The Atlas beetle grubs which I found hatched in the middle of May have been growing very well as I discovered when I picked one of them out of its enclosure.  The pictures below show firstly how they looked in mid-May and secondly today, just six weeks later!  As you can see they have obviously been eating a lot of rotten wood and have grown a huge amount in that short time!

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13th July 2007  Just this evening I have found my first pair of crested gecko eggs!! I am delighted with this as Vern the male was only introduced to the two females, Harley and Quinn, about four weeks ago.  The eggs appear to be fertile and healthy and are now being incubated at 80 degrees Fahrenheit.  At this temperature they should take approximately 60 days to hatch and once this happens I will certainly be adding photographs of the babies here!

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6th July 2007  My first ever babies (nymphs) of Diapherodes gigantea hatched today!  This is one of my larger species of stick insects but as you can see below, as babies they are really tiny! It is hard to believe that one day they will be as big as their mum or dad but they will...

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24th June 2oo7  A very exciting event occurred overnight last night as Fluffy the  golden knee tarantula moulted her exoskeleton for the first time since I have owned her!  Tarantulas and all other types of spider have to moult their exoskeleton (which is a bit like shedding their outer skin) many times during their lives.  This is because a spider's exoskeleton is not able to expand as the spider grows, so they need to lose it and replace it with a new, larger one which forms underneath the old one ready to take its place.

I have known for a while that Fluffy was preparing to go through the moulting process as she has refused to feed for several weeks and her body has looked a little more drab and less colourful than usual, both classic signs of a tarantula in pre-moult, but she finally started the process late into the evening of Saturday 23rd June.

During my routine evening check of all my animals I found Fluffy lying on her back on a bed of silk.  Tarantulas almost always moult whilst lying on their backs and lots of people confuse a moulting spider with a dead one for this reason!  They make a silken 'pillow' for themselves to protect their body both during and after the moulting process.  Once a tarantula is on its back it is important not to disturb it, so I left Fluffy well alone.

The whole of the moulting process can take a very long time, especially in a large adult tarantula like Fluffy.  Unfortunately nothing had changed by the time I was too tired to stay awake and had to go to bed, more than four hours later, so I left Fluffy lying on her back.  I awoke this morning to find that Fluffy had successfully moulted and had left behind her old exoskeleton which was lying on the silken pillow next to her new body!

It really is a bizarre sight as it appears that there are two tarantulas in the tank, but the one in the front on its back is just Fluffy's old exoskeleton!!  A tarantula has to work really hard to push its entire body, including all eight long legs, out of the old exoskeleton and unless you have seen it for yourself it is quite hard to believe! 

When a tarantula is freshly moulted its new exoskeleton is very soft and takes quite some time to harden up again, during which time the normal bright colouration will also come back as the new exoskeleton hardens.  During a moult all the tarantula's hairs are renewed and you can see from the picture below that Fluffy's hairs all look bright and long and, well, Fluffy!

The strangest thing of all about the whole moulting process is that the old exoskeleton (or exuvium) which is left behind looks almost identical to the real tarantula itself, as you can see here.  These three pictures are all of just Fluffy's empty exuvium or skin, but as you can see they look almost exactly the same as my pictures of Fluffy on the meet the animals page here!

The only obvious difference is shown in the picture directly above, and it is that the abdomen or bottom end of the exuvium is a crumpled mass of skin rather than the nice firm rounded shape of Fluffy's real abdomen.  This is because the abdomen is the only part of a tarantula which is soft, and also filled with fluid, so that when they moult the skin on the abdomen it is left without anything to fill it and it ends up looking crumpled as shown above!

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12th June 2007  As well as having a very busy time in the last few months in terms of the huge numbers of visits my animals and I have been making to schools, parties and events, it has also been a rather busy time in my animal collection as you will see below, with lots of new arrivals having hatched or been born in recent weeks! 

9th June 2007   Leia, my imperial scorpion, has FINALLY given birth to her babies!!  I checked on her this morning to find her covered in tiny white baby scorpions and I am absolutely delighted.  It is very hard to count exactly how many there are but I estimate there to be between 20 and 25 babies all huddled together on her back!!

Female imperial scorpions demonstrate truly excellent parental care.  The babies will remain on Leia's back for several weeks now that they are born and during this time she will provide them with food by crushing up crickets for them to eat, as well as ensuring the safety of her babies during this time when their bodies are very soft and delicate.

In the picture below you can very clearly see the black eyes of some of the baby scorpions as well as some of their tiny pincers and stings.  The babies are really cute little creatures and don't look anything at all like their mother at the moment as I'm sure you can see!